WESTFORD, Mass. and ORLANDO, Fla., March 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ribbon Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: RBBN), a global leader in secure and intelligent cloud communications, today announced that its Ribbon Session Border Controller (SBC) portfolio will integrate with Microsoft Teams to deliver a new customer offering: Microsoft Direct Routing for Teams Phone System Hybrid Connection. The solution provides secure, integrated voice services to Teams collaboration environments. Teams is the hub for teamwork in Microsoft Office 365 that allows users to easily chat, share files, data and conduct meetings in teams to improve productivity. Previously external calling was only available from Microsoft's Calling Plans for Phone System in select markets. Ribbon's SBC portfolio now enables customers to additionally leverage their TDM or SIP Trunks for PSTN and PBX voice calling in the Teams client interface natively. This capability allows customers to globally adopt Teams as their modern workspace collaboration tool, while seamlessly integrating voice services.

"We are extremely proud to continue to build on our longstanding collaboration with Microsoft by providing them with the ability to enhance their Microsoft Teams environment with the latest integrated voice and security capabilities," said Kevin Isacks, Vice President of Software as a Service Solutions for Ribbon Communications. "Whether it is easily connecting into existing corporate phone/PBX systems or contact centers or leveraging IP-based cloud technology, we are committed to working closely with Microsoft to help their customers realize the value of real-time communications within Teams, without any worries about underlying technology."

Bob Davis, Corporate Vice President, Office 365 Engineering at Microsoft Corp. said, "We are providing more choices and cost-flexibility to our customers who want to maintain their own voice services or SIP Trunks, by leveraging the latest secure, cloud-based capabilities from Ribbon's SBC portfolio. Working with the Ribbon team to deliver carrier-grade secure integrated voice services to Microsoft Teams is another significant step in our vision for making collaboration easier through intelligent communications tools and solutions."

The Ribbon SBC portfolio, which includes the SBC 1000/2000, SBC Software Edition (SWe) Lite, SBC Software Edition (SWe), SBC 5110/5210/5400 and SBC 7000, offers best-in-class, security, interoperability, advanced monitoring and trouble-shooting, bundled into an easy-to-use, easy-to-deploy solution. These field-proven solutions require no hardware modifications to immediately leverage this new offering from Microsoft. Ribbon's advanced solutions enable seamless interoperability with third party systems (PBX, Call Centers, etc.) allowing customers to gradually migrate to the cloud or from other Microsoft offerings such as Skype for Business at their own pace.

The new solution allows customers who want to use or maintain their existing voice services to seamlessly leverage secure hybrid topologies for Teams and keep voice services within their network for extra security, better voice quality and survivability options.

About Ribbon Communications Ribbon Communications is a company with two decades of leadership in real-time communications. Built on world-class technology and intellectual property, the company delivers intelligent, secure, embedded real-time communications for today's world. The company transforms fixed, mobile and enterprise networks from legacy environments to secure IP and cloud-based architectures, enabling highly productive communications for consumers and businesses. With 64 locations in 27 countries around the globe, Ribbon's innovative, market-leading portfolio empowers service providers and enterprises with rapid service creation in a fully virtualized environment. The company's Kandy Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) delivers a comprehensive set of advanced embedded communications capabilities that enables this transformation. To learn more, visit ribboncommunications.com.

Important Information Regarding Forward-Looking Statements The information in this release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events that involve risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this release are forward-looking statements. Our actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Ribbon Communications' business, please refer to the "Risk Factors" section of Ribbon Communications' most recent annual or quarterly report filed with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements represent Ribbon Communications' views only as of the date on which such statement is made and should not be relied upon as representing Ribbon Communications' views as of any subsequent date. While Ribbon Communications may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point, Ribbon Communications specifically disclaims any obligation to do so.